Defoe misses out on Spurs return

In typical fashion, as the way things seem to go involving Pompey - it is never straight forward, it has been confirmed that Jermain Defoe cannot feature again Spurs this weekend, as rules regarding loan deals then becoming permanent prevent this…

In fairness to Pompey, this does not appear to be our fault - unless we get a nasty surprise in the summer and he still has not signed for us after all, which we have been told he has, although I do not seriously think this is the case - as it is the rules that the premier league have in place that means he cannot face Spurs, a premier league spokesman said: 'the rules are clear. A player who is taken on loan and then during the course of the transfer window, if that loan is made permanent, he is not allowed to play against the team who originally loaned him'.

Apparently Harry Redknapp was first made aware of this by Peter Storrie on Wednesday, and as Redknapp told sky sports news this ruling has frustrated him, and he also feels it is a 'silly' one: 'it was news to me to be honest.

'What happened was we took Jermain on transfer deadline day night and obviously the Benjani deal was dragging on. And that wasn't getting done, so for us to get this through on time, Peter Storrie had to do it as a loan and then convert it to a full transfer after.

'By the time Benji had agreed at Man City it was in danger of over running the window. That was what the problem was. We couldn't agree it until that was done at Manchester City.

'We had to do a loan deal but it got converted to a full deal almost immediately. Now they are saying because it was a loan you can't go on loan and play against the club that loaned you out. It's a load of nonsense, it's some silly rule. There's nothing we can do about it.

'When was it made clear? I think it was last night. Peter rang me up and said 'we could have a problem here with Jermain'. But he thought it might be solved easily enough.

'We were all looking forward to him playing at White Hart Lane. He was popular there. It's nonsense really. It's been converted to a transfer and it only happened because the Benjani deal took so long. We couldn't complete the Jermain deal without the money. It was a back-to-back deal.

'Peter has been talking to people all day but it's difficult to change it at this stage. It's a blow'.

Benjani never actually went on loan to Man City as best I know, but it will be interesting to see if he will be allowed to play against us when we meet next month - which I will assume he will?

It is interesting though that Javier Mascherano did play against West Ham just a few weeks back however, despite having been on a similar long term loan deal from West Ham to Liverpool, only making it permanent recently… the spokesman said 'the rules are clear', this example seems to make it less clear to me, unless the 'ownership' issues of the Argentinean made things different in his case?

PLAY UP POMPEY!

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I could understand it if JD was still on loan, but as has signed for us (hoping this is the case) I can't see the problem. So the we have no Sol, Sulley, Diop & JD. back to bare bones again. Thankfully the game doesn't matter as much as it could have done.

Whats the point of this stupid rule? We paid a transfer fee for him to be our player it shouldn't matter if he was on loan before or not, he isn't now. Its enough that 9 minutes as a sub in the cup is enough to rule him out of our exciting cup run. And this match does matter, we still need to try and catch Everton. As yet no club has done the 'double' on us this season - I want it to stay that way.

The rule is ridiculous. It was a great opportunity to go to the Lane and give Spurs a good go. As it happens because of a lack of strength and depth we're going to have to sit back, get men behind the ball and hoof it to Kanu and Baros. Actually that works for us a lot! 1-0 to Pompey?!

we should still have ambitions to go there and win, players that come in have a chance - altho 'arry probably already knows who he wants his semi final team to be - to try and force their way into his reckoning... the 'ownership' issues relating to mascherano could have something to do with things, but how come he could play for liverpool against west ham? and 'apparently' tevez still hasnt technically signed for united, not sure how true that is, but again how come he could face west ham?

Erm....they can read can't they I'm sure their lawyers went through the paperwork at the time. Its not like somebodys suddenly charged up Portsmouth High St. waving a piece of hitherto unseen piece of paper......or did they?

well you would hope so... but the noises that weve been hearing all week seem to suggest that defoe didnt know this was going to be the case, 'arry didnt seem to think this was going to be the case - altho with him you can never fully tell - and judging from the reaction from pompey fans and many spurs fans, clearly yourself aside, we didnt know this would be the case either - hence this being news to us, even if it isnt to you...

Well I am sure it was an original clause in his loan deal, it may just have been a casualty of trying to sign him at the last minute, I mean you can impose any clause you want generally in those last few minutes before midnight. I seriously think someone is being dishonest here, they must have known. Still good luck in the cup eh.

cheers, that is the main focus really isnt it when all is said and done... yep, you would probably expect that to be the case as far as figures within the club were concerned - it genuinely did surprise most of us fans tho...

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